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Dear List,

The discussion of Visioning has taken an interesting turn and is
practically back to square one...Why have one?

I think the confusion with the vision is that we are assuming that
the vision is FUTURE BASED. I do not see it that way.

If you rely on a vision as a future goal...well, then it is a crap
shoot, isn't it?...because, as it was said, you can't predict the
future and anything can come around and blow you out of the water.
But the vision is not about the future...at least not
entirely...it is about the present and how we prioritize and spend
our time and resources.

Example:
My wife and I envision ourselves in Hawaii in 2 years, relaxing on
the beach. A vision or a hallucination? >Today, it is a
hallucination. With no savings, small children, car payments,
etc. ..it is laughable. So what now? Give up? Well, one thing
for sure is that with this attitude it will always remain out of
reach. And I can settle for the fact that it is a dream out of my
poor little ol' reach.

Impossible? NO...provided that I make some fundamental changes in
the way that I currently live my life. That means that I have to
have some plans underway to get me there. Perhaps now I don't
throw my pocket change at candy machines???, Perhaps an expensive
golf game or renting 3 video's over the weekend with late charges
is no longer acceptable...why? because I have a higher ideal that
reprioritizes my present. A little windfall at Christmas because
my mom decided to sell an old heirloom and split it among the
kids...well, mom, that is going into our savings account for our
Hawaii trip. Without the vision - it might be another television
set or to pay off the Stair Master (thin thighs, but not place to
wear them??)

One thing for sure, if we have NO idea where we are going
EVERYTHING is a REACTION and we are victims. IN my work place
what do I allow to prioritize my work for me? External factors,
so I can always feel behind and out of control? or internal
factors? - where my work is prioritized by a greater ideal and a
higher value.

In the philosophical sense they both are probably
hallucinations...but so too is marriage....and democracy..and
equal rights....and what???? dare I say it???...love itself.
Every human emotion, in my opinion, worth having is based on a
fundamental ideal, or vision...and with a deep knowlege and
understanding that LOVE may not really be out there..we continue
to search nonetheless...don't we?

If it is good enough in our private lives, they by George, why
isn't it good enough in my work life? I spend MOST OF MY LIFE at
work. Are you willing to settle for being a victim?..for having a
job without passion? or some greater purpose that showing up at 8
and getting home by five??

Since we have begun working torward our Vision here, at work, the
biggest fundamental change that I have witnessed is the power of
teamwork. With common goals and a greater sense of purpose my
work is much more rewarding...I have a dream...and I share that
dream with 200 people. This causes me to weather the minor
setbacks, the disappointments and the tribulations, but it also
lets me tell a salesman on the phone - No thanks, not interested,
not a part of what we are doing here!

Yes, I might get struck by cancer before the plane takes off for
Hawaii and all was in vane....or we might get socked with a major
market crash before we realize our dream here at work...or any
numerous unpredictable situations that might arise....so although
the vision is fragile and perhaps tempermental...I am NOT!

I have a passion from my job and it is a fire that spreads amoung
the team members I work with...that did not exist before our
vision when we took what ever came down the pike and REACTED
TO...in fact, it was said not long ago in one of our plant-wide
meetings....We might go down...but NO ONE will say it was because
we didn't try or that we destroyed ourselves from the inside
out..it will be those insurmountable roadblocks and show stoppers
that we couldn't have known - but I will know that the time spent
was well worth it and rewarding.

I guess when it comes to down to it,

I would rather have loved and lost.....


Thanks,
Rick Corcoran

(A modest essay on vision. Commentary, criticism, and complaints
welcome.) DD

At Texas A&M a few years ago, one of my students spoke about the qualities
of leadership. Even now, after centuries of debate, there is still little
agreement on the indispensable qualities of leadership. Undaunted, she
cut out courage and observation as two of her essential leadership
qualities.

"In the A&M stockyards," she said, "Ol' Barney Stone told his students
that it took courage and observation to make a good animal doctor. Often,
to prove his point, he would bend over, dip his finger in a fresh cowpie,
stand up, lick his finger, and ask his students to follow his example.
All of his students did the same without flinching.

"Doc Stone would grin an easy grin and say 'Well, you each passed the
first test but not the second. None of you noticed that I dipped in my
forefinger but licked my second!'"

Her point was well made. In many cases, the observance of small details
is the difference between reluctant, reckless, or rational results. The
keen observation of a leader diminishes the connected the risks of
courage. Then, a communication of a leader's vision is the anecdote to
dispell the chill of worry before becoming a graveyard of indecision
littered with stone markers of dead intentions.

On the other hand, an argument for hair-splitting differences tends to get
bogged down by design or degrees.

I recall just such an argument took place at Red's domino hall when I was
a kid. My granddaddy and his friends would gather at Red's on lazy summer
afternoons when they wer laid-by to play dominoes, discuss farm prices,
baiting and badgering each other as long-time friends are likely to do.

A stately old farmer, Red liked chewing tobacco and calmly rocking in his
chair.

On one afternoon, the topic turned to fence posts. Specifically, the
players wanted to know the type of post that would last the longest.
Equally divided, one group favored the use of red cedar as the longest
lasting wood for their post. The other group was inclined to think white
oak lasted longer and made the better post. Finally, one of the men
thought of asking Red to help settle the matter.

"Red, what we want to know is which wood will last the longest, red cedar
or white oakwood?"

Red's chair stopped rocking.

"Oak," he said starting to rocking again.

The partisans of white oak roared in agreement, but the red cedar boys
were silent.

Not satisfied, at last, Owen spoke up, "Red, if you say white oak lasts
longer, how much longer will it last?"

The chair stopped again. Silence. Red spit his juice into the coffee
can at his feet.

"About twenty minutes," he said.

A leader's vision, now more than ever, copes with the demand for attention
to small details and quiets disputes over small differences.


______________________
Great Optimism,

Dutch Driver
Abilene, TX
Hm. Telephone: 915.698.7217
mailto:ddriver@cs1.mcm.edu